Another landscape.

[Slugbug]

Hello again!

I sat down today and went through a ton of photos to see if there was something to edit and do some PP on. I found a couple and went about my business.

Here's the best one according to my senses.


40 mm, ISO 160, 1/250sec at f/10.

C&C welcome!

[tameigh]

I love the top half. I wish that the bottom half were a little more visible. I have a feeling that it is quite beautiful, and when you took the picture, the trees in the foreground were more visible to the eye.

[MiniChris]

Could have used the graduated filter in ACR to lighten and detail that area considerably. I used a graduated filter on a layer and was able to get it lighter but not sure what the actual color was so couldn't really do anything with it.

[Slugbug]

Thanks for the replies!

I tried to get it bottom half lighter, but I'm not too good at using a graduated filter yet. The result was way worse than it is now. I'll sit down and try to get it to look better tomorrow when I'm not as tired as I am now.

[Geoff F]

What I would be tempted to try here, Andre, is to create 2 layers; one 'exposed' for the shadows and one for the highlights, add masks and edit the masks with a soft low opacity brush until a composite image forms.

Preferably working from a Raw original.

If you can produce a good selection around the mountain/tree area it should be possible to adjust each half as required or even change the sky altogether. But I have a suspicion that some areas like the tree tops will be too problematic for this idea to work well.

Just a couple of thoughts.

[Slugbug]

I've managed to use a graduated filter to change it for the better, but I overdid it. Will have a go at it tomorrow again when I have some more time.

I haven't really looked around all that much in Lightroom, but is there a selection tool in it? I haven't found it in any of the side bars and it annoys me intensely! Haven't had a look through the menus though. Maybe I should. Or maybe I should get a hold of the GIMP. Don't think I can afford Photoshop at the moment.

[Radu Dinu Cordeanu]

Hi,
May be somewhat like that

[Slugbug]

Yeah, I was thinking something along those lines, but without doing that much to the mountains. I'm still struggling to get the shots as sharp as I want to. It's a lot sharper in your edit Radu.

[Slugbug]

I've had some time to do some more post processing on this photo now. I've managed to get the photo sharper, the trees lighter and more bright. I've left the right hand mountainside pretty dark, not sure whether or not I should brighten that up just yet. I've also started experimenting framing photos. Any thoughts?



Edit: I do think I should brighten up the right hand mountainside a bit.

[speedneeder]

Andre, that looks pretty nice to me! Wish I could see it with my own eyes.
Your work on the foreground is an improvement, though I'm not sure where the blue is coming from there?
I agree that any detail on the mountain on the right would also be an improvement.

[Crovean]

I've had some time to do some more post processing on this photo now. I've managed to get the photo sharper, the trees lighter and more bright. I've left the right hand mountainside pretty dark, not sure whether or not I should brighten that up just yet. I've also started experimenting framing photos. Any thoughts?



Edit: I do think I should brighten up the right hand mountainside a bit.

This is an improvement from the first photo and love this!

[Slugbug]

Andre, that looks pretty nice to me! Wish I could see it with my own eyes.
Your work on the foreground is an improvement, though I'm not sure where the blue is coming from there?
I agree that any detail on the mountain on the right would also be an improvement.

Thanks for the reply Brian! If you're ever in Norway, bring your camera.

The blue might be a result of me being a newbie when it comes to layers. I'm learning as I go.

The mountain on the right didn't look that bad when the trees in the foreground were dark as well. It's funny when you improve something in a photo, something else needs improvement too.

This is an improvement from the first photo and love this!

I'm glad you like it!

[Donald]

Sorry, I'm coming into this thread a bit late.

Nobody mentioned dodging as an answer to the question about lightning the foreground. That's what I would immediately have done.

Not sure how you get there with Adobe products, but with my workflow in the GIMP it's merely a matter of a transparent layer in Overlay mode and paint gently with a white brush at an opacity of something like 10-15%. Job done!

Adjust degree of brightness to taste

[Slugbug]

Thanks for the reply Donald! That sounds like a very easy way to do it! I'm going to have a go at that after work.

I cut the trees out using the lasso tool and put them in a new layer adjusting the levels if I remember correctly. Then I used the erase tool to make it look good along the edges.

[Donald]

Thanks for the reply Donald! That sounds like a very easy way to do it! I'm going to have a go at that after work.

Andre

It is. So long as there is something there to work with (i.e. it's not totally black or totally white) you can bring in detail through dodging or burning, depending on whether you're needing to brighten or darken (use black brush for burning).

In terms of the impact of brushing, you could increase the opacity of the brush and just do one pass to achieve the desired effect. But, I find you have much greater control to bring out the nuances of light and shade by keeping the opacity low and making several passes with the brush. If you brush an area once and then brush it a second time, the effect is cumulative. So you can build up the amount of dodging or burning you apply. Just play about with it and you soon get to know what works for you.